Fiction Review: The Sentence

If you've ever visited my blog or watched one of my YouTube videos , you know I'm a huge Louise Erdrich fan! I've reviewed several of her books here, including LaRose , a poignant novel about family and community; A bit different from most of his novels, Future House of the Living God is set in an apocalyptic future. Night Watchman, a historical novel that won the Pulitzer Prize last year. All of her novels feature Native American characters, and Louise herself sings her vocals (which is great—you've all heard it on audio), and they're all warm, funny, powerful, and heartwarming. I wanted to start my reading year off on a high, so I chose her latest novel The Sentence for my first audiobook of 2022, and I absolutely loved it! This might be my favorite Louise Erdrich novel ever…

Tookie spent many years in prison. The novel begins with a twisted and funny story of how he ended up there and how his free life came to an abrupt end in his thirties and he was thrown into prison. He survived by reading anything he could get his hands on with a "mortal interest," including a dictionary sent to him by his high school English teacher. When she left school, she married a man who had loved her since she was young and got a job at Birch Park Books, a bookstore in her hometown of Minneapolis. Birch Bark Books is a real Minneapolis bookstore owned by author Louise Erdrich! Thus, even though Louise is a minor character, she appears as herself in the novel. On Halloween, one of the bookstore's regular customers, Flora, dies, and she begins to haunt the library, as she did in her life. At first, Tookie can only see/feel a ghostly presence that has a real burden on him. Then suddenly it's March 2020... and you know what's coming! Toki, his family and library staff are dealing with the pandemic, followed by the horrific events in Minneapolis in May when a police officer killed George Floyd. As we know in the real world, there are no easy answers to either crisis, but by the end of the novel, Tookie seems calmer.

I feel like I should add a short piece because Louise Erdrich has such a unique and warm literary voice that she's especially great vocally. Toki describes himself at the beginning of the book:

"I was at a dangerous age when I committed the crime. Even though I was in my thirties, I still had the physical activity and mental habits of a teenager. That was in 2005, but in 1999 I was partying, drinking and doing drugs like me. i was seventeen i had a better idea let me tell you i'm an ugly woman and i'm not the ugly type of guys who write or make movies about my hyphenation all of a sudden.dazzling educated beauty.lesson moments.i'm pretty on the inside I'm not, for example, I like to lie and I'm good at selling useless things for a price. I only sell words. Groups of words on a cardboard sleeve.

I hope this gives you an idea of ​​what makes Erdrich's and Toki's novels so special. By Toki's own admission, he has some serious flaws, but that's exactly why we love him. This piece highlights the wonderful sense of humor that permeates every paragraph of this novel (and others), even when it comes to serious matters. His endearing sense of humor and these flawed characters, which I love, add to the genuine warmth. When the date surprised me, in March 2020, I was completely immersed in the story as Tookie dealt with Flora's nightmare. I didn't care when the book was finished. I'm fascinated by the new Pandemic fantasy novels because I know exactly what's coming and the characters don't. This creates a kind of tension in the story as the characters create temporary masks and wonder how long things will stay this way. I also thought the author's relationship with George Floyd was perfect. This shows how his death affects the whole society. I loved Tookie and his friends and family and loved accompanying them on this journey of growth and development and their search for peace.

400 pages, Harper

Harper's voice

my difficulties :

S alphabet soup challenge

January Diversity and Minor Trouble: Culture/Mythology (Native Americans)

Minnesota's Letter Avoidance Challenge

Disclosure: I received this book in exchange for an honest review from the publisher. My review is my own and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases made through these links earn me a small commission (a few cents per purchase) to make up for the time I spend writing for this blog at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube channel for more book fun !

 

Before Tookie goes to jail, listen to a great audiobook sample from the beginning of the book here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can purchase the book through Bookshop.org , where your purchase will support your choice of independent bookstores (or all independent libraries): keep the ease of online shopping and local shopping!

Or you can order The Sentence from Book Depository with free worldwide shipping .

Fiction Review: Happiness

From the long list of books I want to read in an Excel spreadsheet, I first heard the joys of Aminatta Forna at Booktopia, a very unique yearbook event where writers and readers meet and talk about books in Vermont every May. weekend. I thought this book was a recommendation from one of the booksellers at Northshire Books , the great bookstore that offers the event, and as always, it was a great deal. I really liked this novel about two completely different people who intersect in London in winter. I read very comfortably because I was infected with the corona virus in January.

Jane is an American wildlife biologist living in London, where she studies urban foxes ( the real problem there). He is divorced (mostly because of his commitment to his job) and has a teenage son at his home in Massachusetts. He loves his job and designs rooftop gardens/terraces for city dwellers, but leads a fairly isolated lifestyle. There are a lot of locals here - officials, taxi drivers, street cleaners, security guards and so on. - It helps him follow the foxes and let them know when and where he sees them. Attila is a Ghanaian psychiatrist who specializes in PTSD. His work usually takes him to the worst places/times, to war-torn countries, where he provides advice and assistance to soldiers and civilians who have witnessed or participated in horrific events. But he came to London for a spectacular show and a personal mission. Yan and Attila's paths intersected at the Waterloo Bridge one night, and then met again several times. While in London, Atilla But's "niece" goes through an immigration campaign (despite her legal presence) and her son, Tanu, disappears. While the mother is in the hospital, Attila begins to look for Tanu, and Jean, along with various "fox watchers", offers to help. Jean and Attila get to know each other and deepen their friendship, as they each face their own problems and sorrows.

It is also a warm, serene and very thoughtful novel. Jean and Attila, two completely different people living different lives, struggle with different problems in their lives. They both felt very lonely and immediately attracted to each other. The novel covers topics such as war, insanity, immigration, divorce, and grief, but always with a playful twist. I learned a lot about wolves, foxes, and PTSD. But the emphasis here is on character. As I read, I became very interested and attracted to Jean and Attila. Forna's writing is beautiful, and this serene winter novel is something that really disturbs and comforts me when I'm sick. I wanted to read more of Aminata Forna (she has written three novels and two more memoirs).

312 pages, Groov Press

Registered book

This book is suitable for the following reading problems :

Mount TBR Challenge - I'm finally reading a book on my shelf!

Alphabet soup

Diversity Reading Challenge

Ghana and England are in trouble traveling the world with books

Note: This article contains general links. Purchasing from this link earns me a small commission (a few cents on each purchase) to compensate you for the time I spent writing this blog at no extra cost.

Visit my YouTube channel for more fun books !

 

Listen to sample audiobooks at the beginning of the book, excerpts from historical episodes from 1834, and/or download them from Audible.

 

This book is available at Bookshop.org , where your purchase will support the independent bookstore of your choice (or all independent bookstores) - making online shopping convenient, but also local shopping!

Or you can order at the Happiness Book Depository with free worldwide shipping.

Fiction Review: The Illustrated Man

At the end of January, I decided to read another book in the busy TBR library and got off to a great start with Back to the Classics Challenge 2022 , which I did not do very well last year ! I got Ray Bradbury 's The Illustrated Man , the book my husband gave me for my birthday last year. Ray and I will be back. When I was a teenager, I read all the books on my public library shelf! That was a long time ago, so over the past few years I've discovered why I love his books so much (check out my 2018 review of The Martian Chronicles ). This collection of stand-alone stories does not disappoint; He is attractive, intelligent and wise.

The man depicted in the title appears in the foreground and is the rest of the group. He was a tall, tattooed man who lived in the night. Each one tells a story with sound and animation, like a little movie playing on its cover. An enlightened man travels through the Wisconsin countryside and meets other men along the way. The two decide to camp together all night, and the other guys stay awake all night and watch in amazement as the tattooed man tells his story. These are the rest of the stories in this book, each truly unique. They are all science fiction, but, as Bradbury always does, most of them have to do with human nature. Many of them occur in the future, in outer space and / or on other planets. In The Other Foot , a community of blacks live peacefully on Mars when a missile arrives, destroying their peaceful community. Like many of Bradbury's stories, the tour here is witty and full of irony. The Long Rain contains a military group on Earth that finds it extremely difficult to adapt to life on Venus. In The Rocket Man , a typical Earthling family struggles with their father's time-consuming astronaut work while struggling to adjust to a normal life while at home for vacation. Earth missionaries will discover new life forms on Mars in The Fire Balloons (commonly if you read The Martian Chronicles ) that oppose attempts to introduce Christianity and perhaps teach priests something. The Last Night of the World presents a very simple concept that will have terrible consequences that will blow your mind. My favorite story is The Exiles , which is so witty that describing it will spoil the fun of surprises, but it has an important message.

These are just a few quick examples of the eighteen stories in this collection, but each one is fictional, mischievous and thoughtful. This book was published in 1948 and it is surprising to find that most of these stories were written in the 1940s (and possibly earlier) because their imaginative meanings are still relevant today. Although much of the science fiction literature of the day seems outdated today (e.g., the use of instant messaging at home with "IM" here in the story!), Bradbury wrote about racism, classicism, how people treat others, censorship, danger, and so on. . More today in a viable and relevant way. It may be disappointing not to move forward as the human race, but Bradbury enjoyed each of these stories so much that we happily discovered the truth hidden in the conversation and then followed his example. I really enjoyed each of these thought-provoking stories and look forward to the next episode on Bradbury's back cover.

281 pages, Simon & Schuster

Tantour's voice

This book is a challenge to read :

TBR Mountain Challenge

Back to the Classics Challenge 2022 - Collection of short stories

I'm taking part in the 2022 Alphabet Soup Challenge

Diversity Challenge

The World Book Challenge Journey - Are Mars and Venus Worth It?

Note: This post contains member links. If you buy through this link, I will get a small commission (cents per purchase) to make up for the time I spent writing this blog at no additional cost to you.

Visit my YouTube channel for more fun in books!

 

Listen to a sample audiobook here and / or download it from Audible. The example shows an introduction by Ray Bradbury (not included in my print edition) that explains why and how he wrote some of these interesting stories.

 

You can purchase books through Bookshop.org , helping the purchase at the independent bookstore (or all independent bookstores) of your choice; The convenience of online shopping when shopping locally!

Or you can order The Illustrated Man from Book Depository for free worldwide shipping.

 

Fiction Review: Mercy Street

I have been a fan of author Jennifer Hay for many years. I read the Baker Towers novel in the early 2000s, which was set in Cole, Pennsylvania in the 1940s, and I really liked it. I wondered if it was the “right time and place” situation, but a few years later I enjoyed re-reading it for a group of my books. In fact, it is enough to make the list of the top ten favorite novels of 2009! Then I read the lady . Kimble , another novel by Hey, about three different women, each married to a man, and I love this woman, too. In 2011 I read A Family Status with a Genetic Daughter for a group in my Hague book and the following year I read Faith , which happened during the Boston Parish book scandal. . So when I first saw Jennifer Hey publish a new novel on February 1st, I took the opportunity to see it. I've heard of Mercy Street on tape and found it as interesting and suspenseful as any O novel.

Mercy Street is a multi-service women's hospital in Boston, and the novel tells the story of several different characters whose lives intersect at different points, many of which relate to hospitals. Claudia is a woman in her forties and works as a specialist in the clinic. He grew up in poverty in the village of Maine, the only child of a mother who, like Claudia, lived in a trailer with dozens of foster children. Although her mother did two jobs, Claudia was the main caregiver of most of the children, even though she was very young. His experience has enabled him to understand the lives of many poor young clients. Anthony grew up in Boston and was injured as a young man while working on a construction site. Unable to deal with the ongoing traumatic brain injury, he lived in his mother’s basement. She spent all of her time attending a daily meeting at a nearby Catholic church and engaging in her anti-abortion efforts, which included protests on Mercy Street. Timmy grew up with Anthony and knew him since childhood. She now weeds herself and her son in Florida. Claudia and Anthony are both Timmy's clients and one day they meet at his apartment. Victor lives in a village in Pennsylvania, he is a racist and extremist and collects guns and food. His views on abortion were very different from Anthony's: he believed that women of color reproduced faster than whites, so any white woman who had an abortion should be ashamed and condemned. He met Anthony online and asked him to create a website with a "Hall of Shame" featuring pictures of women visiting health clinics on Mercy Street (although many women were there for other reasons). Anthony is involved for moral reasons, but Victor is clearly dangerous.

The novel tells each of these characters separately, in separate sections, because their lives subconsciously overlap and influence each other. I’ve thought a lot about why I liked Hay’s novels so much and what made them so interesting. Like The Streets of Mercy , he writes more about ordinary people living ordinary lives, but he is an incredibly talented writer in bringing these characters to life on the pages. At the end of the novel, you are very interested in Claudia, Anthony and Timmy (maybe not Victor!) And want to know what happened to them. Each of these characters is a lonely person, so this novel doesn’t focus on the same family as many previous novels, but you can learn about their family history and (limited) existing relationships through flashbacks and current stories. Hey writes from a variety of perspectives, giving readers an overview of her life, motivation and values. The audio book was read by a narrator but it worked well and I was deeply immersed in the story. Of course, like Iman , the novel is controversial, but it’s not about questions, it’s about people. This makes The Hague's novels easier to read and more interesting, I think: for those who feel completely real on the pages.

352 pages, echo

Harper Audio

You can watch / listen to an interview with Jennifer Haye about Mercy Street , written by Jess Walter and hosted by Parnassus Books (owned by Ann Pachett). He talks about the concept of the novel, the cover and how to get acquainted with the class topics of the novel.

This book is suitable for the following reading purposes :

Alphabet Soup Competition m

In the Massachusetts Literary Race

Visit my YouTube channel to get more book fun !

 

Listen to an audio sample of the beginning of the novel and part of Claudia here and / or download it from Audible.

 

You can find books through Bookshop.org , where your purchase supports the independent bookstore of your choice (or any independent bookstore) - the convenience of online shopping with the convenience of local shopping!

 

Or order Mercy Street from a bookstore with free worldwide shipping

Middle-Grade Review: Marshmallow and Jordan

Heard Great Things About Alina Chaw Middle Class Marshmallow Jordan Graphic Novel I finally got a chance to read it for myself. I loved this touching and enduring story of a young disabled girl who faces challenges and finds an impossible partner to support her.

Jordan was the captain and star of the Indonesia national basketball team. Then the accident led to him being put in a wheelchair. He seems amazingly consistent, his talented teammates always support him when behind training and playing, sometimes helping the coach during training or he can play from his chair. But Jordan cannot be an integral part of the team and the competition. One day, on his way home from school, he saw a wounded white elephant cub. I think elephants are popular in Indonesia because Jordan is not surprised, but helps the baby elephant back home so that its mother, a veterinarian, can help the injured animal. His parents agreed to let an elephant named Jordan Marshmallow stay with them until he regained his health. To recover his kindness, Marshmallow mysteriously builds a backyard pool one night, helping Jordan learn to swim the next day without using his feet. Jordan loves the newfound freedom of walking around the pool. After a great day of water basketball with his friends in the pool, Jordan joined the water polo team. As he's playing a brand new game, his teammates aren't very hospitable at first, fearing it could ruin his chances of reaching the final this year. Jordan seems to be falling behind his old and new teammates, but he trains hard every day after school, adding extra hours to himself, until his strength, stamina, and aquatic skills improve. At the end of the school year, the crisis resolves itself in a very surprising way.

For example, Jordan with his basketball team

For example, Jordan brings home Marshmallow candy

This person has a chronic disease, there were two young men who had the same disease at a very young age (one of them is being treated now) - I can say with confidence that having a disabled child is very rare. In a book for children and adolescents. A disabled child is less common for a gifted athlete. But this wonderful book is more than just a Jordanian flaw. It's all about the company, the family, and overcoming all kinds of challenges. I like that the challenges Jordan faces here have to do with his “disability, he can no longer play his favorite game,” and the completely “normal” kinds of challenges all the kids in the company face, accepting and trying something new. Learning Skills. There is a story in the story to make it more fun. Beautiful, colorful watercolor illustrations help tell the story - they literally paint a complete picture of Indonesia's daily life (add some additions to the section). Picture together և Text / Dialogue that tells the magical story of an ordinary girl from a different culture, familiar to most readers, with challenges that all children can identify with.

365 pages, first second

This book faces the following 2022 reading challenges :

TBR Mountain Challenge:

Diversity Challenges

Travel the world with books - Indonesia

inspiration. I got this book from the publisher for an honest review. My opinions do not affect my opinions հարաբերությունների My relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains approved links. Buying from these links gives me a small commission (one buyback per purchase) to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog at no additional cost to you.

 

 

Visit my YouTube channel for more book fun .

 

You can get the book through Bookshop.org , shopping supports your favorite independent bookstore (or all independent bookstores) at the convenience of online shopping when shopping locally.

 

Or you can order from Marshmallow և Jordan Book Depot , including free worldwide shipping.

 

Fiction Review: Harlem Shuffle

When I decided to read it for Black History Month, the first book I chose was Colson Whitehead’s “ Harlem Shuffle ,” a Christmas present for my husband. The Whitehead Underground (my opinion in the link) surprised me, and I couldn’t wait to read its latest version, which takes place in Harlem in the early 1960s.

Ray Carney has come a long way after a difficult childhood with a notorious alcoholic father and criminal. Ray runs a decent business, a furniture store on 125th Street in Harlem, with his name on display in gold letters, and is married to Elizabeth, whose parents live under the pseudonym Striver’s Row. Ray and his apartment look like the subway, but Ray dreams of a nice apartment on Riverside Drive overlooking the park. In 1959, their daughter Mae was born, and Elizabeth was pregnant with her second child. Ray’s business is going pretty well, but he feels constant pressure to pay all the bills, keep the business in the dark, so many people pay membership fees and want a better life for Elizabeth and her children. He grew up the brother of his brother Freddie, as his father often left him for a long time and remained with his aunt. He and Freddie are still close, although Freddie followed in Ray’s father’s footsteps and lived as a criminal. However, these are mostly small items, and when he occasionally offers Ray to sell “used TVs” at his store, Ray allows him to add them to legitimate used stocks and looks the other way. However, this time Freddie falls in love with the evil villains and attracts Ray, who offers his services as a barrier. The plans are to rob a luxury hotel in Harlem, and, as usual, the robbery is not going as planned. Everything happens, and Ray suddenly gets on the police radar and gets nervous because of a new criminal client ... but he makes more money. As he progresses, Ray rises in the world when he finds more and more problems in his beloved cousin. Ray is constantly moving between legal and criminal business, one foot in every world.

As always, Whitehead has a tremendous talent for attracting people to the site, place and time. In this case, the Harlem of the 1960s is so vivid and realistic that one can almost hear the sounds, smells, and fear and rage of racial riots. It penetrates all aspects of the scene and time, making you feel almost at home, and at the same time offers criminals and future black Harlem entrepreneurs (who are sometimes equally perverted). Ray is a complex and intriguing character who is trapped between two worlds, wanting to win the road in the real world and wanting to prove that he has nothing to do with his father, because he is attracted to such an attractive world of underground criminals. potential. This novel is successful on many levels: as a family drama, as a thrilling crime thriller, as a historical tale of an era of open racial conflict and a love letter to Harlem. I really enjoyed making this trip with Ray and his family.

318 pages, Double Day

This book addresses the challenges of reading in 2022 :

Pass the TBR call

Diversity Challenge (and February Mini Challenge - black)

New York (probably the first of many!) In the Literary Escape Challenge

Note: This post contains links to participants. Shopping on these links brings me a small commission (a few cents per purchase) to make up for the time I spend writing this blog at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube channel to get more interesting books!

 

Listen to the audiobook here with a good story by Dion Graham and / or download it from Audible. This novel sounds great in sound!

 

You can purchase the book through Bookshop.org , where your purchases will be the choice for your independent bookstore (or all independent bookstores): shop online and shop locally!

Or you can order a Harlem Shuffle at the bookstore with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: Kindred

For years I had heard nothing but great reviews about Octavia Butler's Kindred and wanted to read it. So when I saw that my local independent bookstore had chosen it for their monthly Black Book of the Month review panel, I signed up. Fabulous. Not good. This touching story of a contemporary black woman who travels through time on a southern plantation in 1815 amazed me. It is a fascinating, compelling and very powerful story that has generated a lot of discussion.

Dana is a black woman who lived in California with her white husband Kevin in 1976. Both are writers and Dana works part-time to get around. On her 26th birthday, Dana suddenly disappears from their living room as she and Kevin unload the boxes of their latest move. It is located near a river in the countryside surrounded by trees. See a child drown in a river and act on instinct, jump into the water and swim to save him. You drag it ashore, but it doesn't breathe, so you start to breathe mouth-to-mouth. She was shocked when her mom arrived on the scene and started punching Dana in the back. The boy, Rufus, started breathing again, but his father appeared and pointed the gun at Dana. She disappears from the scene and reappears in her living room wet, dirty and out of breath. She tells Kevin what happened, and while it's hard to believe, it's impossible to ignore the physical evidence Dana carries: river water, dirt, and bruises on her back. It soon happened again and Dana learned that her maiden voyage was in 1815 and that Rufus lived on a farm in Maryland. She seems to have the ability to somehow relate to him when his life is in danger, which often happens as he gets older. Whenever Dana is taken back in time, she stays around longer; He suddenly returns to his time when his life is in danger. While on the plantation, Dana has to live and work with slaves, often gets into trouble, remembers to speak up, and behaves submissively towards Rufus' often abusive parents. Dana tells her true story to Rufus, who sees her appear and disappear, and even though these two become a little intimate, their relationship is still strained, as Rufus discovers that blacks are less human, almost animal. What makes things even more difficult is that Dana's family history is in jeopardy due to what's going on on this farm.

did i say wow ?? Regular readers of my blog know that I love time travel novels, especially those that include historical stories like Connie Willis' TheDoomsday Book and Eclipse and Everything is Obvious . But this historical time travel novel was incredibly powerful. We had a lot to discuss in the reading group. We all agreed that Dana, who had experienced slavery on a southern plantation, was stronger because she was a modern woman, and the contrast with her modern life only accentuated the horrors of slavery. The comings and goings between periods influenced Dana and Kevin, who one day drifted a lot with her. With the views of black and white slaves of the time, as well as the growing conflict between the admiration and respect of Rufus and Dana and the views he grew up on, the novel covers many aspects of this period in depth. Dana faces impossible choices and makes very difficult decisions as she tries to balance the needs of time - and the people she's starting to care for - with her modern life and family. It's a compelling and powerful portrait of a terrifying time and place in our story, told in a truly unique way. I want to go back and reread the whole novel. I'm sure someday.

note that. When you get back to the end of the novel, be sure to go back and read the introduction again!

264 pages, Bacon Press

Registered books

This book is suitable for the following 2022 reading assignments :

TBR fitting test

Idea of ​​the Month - Girl Power (No female character is more ferocious than Dana!)

Alphabet soup challenge - K for the family

Challenge to diversity

Literary Escape Call - North Carolina

note that. This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links earn me a small commission (one cent per purchase) to make up for the time I spend writing posts for this blog at no additional cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube channel for more book fun!

 

Listen to audiobook excerpts from the introduction and beginning of the novel here and / or download it from Audible. This looks good!

 

You can purchase a book through Bookshop.org , where your purchase will support the independent bookstore of your choice (or all independent bookstores), making online shopping convenient while shopping locally!

Or you can order Kindred from Book Depository with free worldwide shipping.

Middle-Grade Review: Ruby Lee and Me

Last month, while waiting for my book group selection to become available, I needed a quick book to weave between books and wanted to stay on my story month theme. I've found the perfect choice on my TBR shelves (since 2016!): Ruby Lee and Me, a temporary novel by Shannon Hitchcock. It's a rich and warm story that blends the family drama, friendship and racial tensions of 1960s Southern integration.

Sarah, 12, is assigned to take care of her younger sister Robin on a summer's day in North Carolina in 1969, but becomes distracted by the book she is reading. Robin runs down the street and gets hit by a car. She was badly injured and Sara and her family were devastated. Sara goes to her grandparents' farm while her parents spend every day in the hospital with Robin. No one knows that Sarah blames herself and is overcome with guilt for what happened. But living on the farm with her grandparents in the summer is always comforting to her, and she's particularly excited to see her friend Rubin, a black girl who lives with her grandmother next door to the farm. Sarah notes that while her grandmothers are good friends at home, they rarely talk to each other when they're in town. Now, the big news in town is that Sarah School will be onboarded for the first time this fall, with its first African American teacher. Sarah is nervous about going to a new school, but reassures her friend Ruby will be around her... until Ruby tells her they can't be friends at school, only at home, like hers Grandmother tired. Their different attitudes create a rift between the two girls and Sarah's summer is only made worse as she worries about Robin and doesn't even have a boyfriend to talk to anymore.

I loved this sweet story with so much emotional complexity intertwined in it. Poor Sara has so many worries about a little girl, and the novel shows how much she (and consequently the other children) thinks about these difficult subjects that many adults would not bother. The author describes a beautiful picture of farm life, unlike anything that went wrong that summer. He explains in an author's note that Sarah's experiences are based on her childhood in North Carolina in 1967, when her sister was injured and schools were integrated, although she was younger than Sarah at the time. Also includes some of her photos on the back. Maybe that's why this story is so touching and authentic, with characters that really feel it. I was really having a great time with Sarah and Rubin and I was looking for them (and the town) to calm things down.

207 pages, scholastic

This book is part of the following Reading Challenges 2022 :

Mount TBR Challenge (Bonus points since this has sat on my shelf for 6 years?)

The Challenge of Reading the Alphabet - R

The Challenge of Reading Diversity

The Challenge of Literary Escape - North Carolina

Discovery: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My rating is my opinion and not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains companion links. Purchases made through these links give me a small commission (purchase rewards) to make up for the time I spend writing for this blog at no additional cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube channel for more book fun!

 

You can purchase the book through Bookshop.org , where your purchase will support your choice of standalone bookstore (or any standalone bookstore)—the convenience of online shopping with the convenience of local shopping!

 

Or you can order Ruby Lee and Me from Book Depository , with free shipping worldwide.

Middle-Grade Review: Behind the Mountains

I searched for another audiobook for Black History Month and finished my mid-level audio recording because I only had a week to listen to it in February. I chose " Beyond the Mountains" by Edge Dandikat and enjoyed the story of a girl's journey from the Haitian mountains to the concrete jungles of New York.

Celian lives with her mother and older brother in a small village in the mountains of Haiti. They had a small farm, but due to limited resources in Haiti, Celiana's father moved to New York five years ago to raise money to send home to his family. Other family members are waiting for their visas to be approved so they can join. Celian is the best student in her class, but her parents want to give her the best possible education. His brother Mai is studying for a semester, although he wants to become an artist. Celiana and her mother came down the hill to meet Aunt Celiana in Port-au-Prince. As the election draws near and supporters on both sides resort to violence, the city is in danger. One day, Selian and her mother were seriously injured when a bus exploded while they were getting on a bus. Now there are more reasons to leave Haiti and their visas are approved immediately. Three members of the family go to New York to reunite with Celia's father, but Brooklyn is a whole different world than before! Each of them is trying to adjust to their strange new life.

Seliana's teacher gave her a notebook to use as a diary, so the novel was written from Seliana's point of view as she recorded her family experiences in the diary. This first-person story allows readers to experience everything new in New York, like Haiti and Celian. Ella Toure's beautiful voice and the narrator's emphasis on the audio add to this exciting experience. I liked the strange landscape, because I had never read a novel in Haiti before, and the author perfectly described the mountain village and the vibrant and picturesque city. The novel also beautifully depicts how immigrants, even smart students like Selena, feel out of place among many students who struggle with foreign languages ​​and are different from her. New York was a difficult adaptation for everyone. In the author's note, Dandikat explains that the novel is based on his family's childhood experiences and that reality shines through him. It is a great pleasure to accompany Selena on her new life journey.

192 pages, Gramedia

school audio

Note: This novel will be reprinted on April 5, 2022 in print and audio.

This book corresponds to the following 2022 reading problem :

The problem of diversity

Discover the world in the book - Haiti

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest opinion. My opinions are not affected by my own opinions or my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This article contains permission links. Buying from these links earns me a small commission (cents per purchase), so I've taken the time to write this blog at no additional cost to you.

Visit my YouTube channel for more book fun !

 

Listen to the sample audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. Please note that the audio sample will be available on April 5, 2022.

 

The books are available through Bookshop.org , where your purchase will support your favorite independent bookstore (or any independent bookstore) - the convenience of shopping online when you shop locally!

 

Or you can ask behind the hill Free shipping worldwide, even from bookstores .